Whether you carry a wallet bursting at the seams or you’re a two-cards-and-cash-in-a-clip person, Journey has a new product you might want to give a go. It’s the Ezmo Magnetic Wallet and Phone Stand.
It’s a high-quality leather product that fixes to your iPhone. But whether you want it to be your daily carrier for cash and cards depends on how little you feel you can get by carrying around with you. The company sent me one to try out.
Journey Ezmo Magnetic Wallet and Phone Stand
The vegan-leather Journey Ezmo Magnetic Wallet and Phone Stand folds in half and sticks firmly to a MagSafe iPhone. Even with a leather case on my iPhone 13 Pro, it held fast every time I carried it. Its rigid halves also open up to serve as a stand for the handset.
The quality of Ezmo’s leather and the stitching around the edges is high. The gizmo features two slim interior pockets and one deeper exterior one.
Journey makes no secret of the fact that its new MagSafe-compatible wallet isn’t likely to replace something like the overstuffed and misshaped wallet your dad probably carried.
“We’ve designed the Ezmo, our first wallet, to be a minimalist carry item with maximum features, for consumers who predominantly transact digitally.”
Holds about 5 cards, more or less
Photo: David Snow/Cult of Mac
So it’s more for people who pay for most things with Apple Pay via their iPhone, not for those who want the wallet to tote $20-$40, a few credit cards, a driver’s license, one or more healthcare cards, a COVID-19 record, this week’s assorted receipts and more.
Other than the receipts, I’m more or less describing myself above. My normal daily pants-pocket carry, besides the iPhone, is a carbon-fiber wallet.
With that minimalist item, the two carbon-fiber pieces are held together with a stretchy strap that can also hold cash on the outside. The inside is for cards, and it expands against the stretchy strap to hold around 10. Even so, it’s slimmer and smaller than most wallets.
Photo: David Snow/Cult of Mac
Coming from that carbon-fiber wallet, I found it somewhat tough to choose only must-have items to carry in the Ezmo magnetic wallet, which recommends five cards but includes cash among its examples. So it’s a total of five cards’ worth of space.
But I found I could stretch it to about seven cards without making the Ezmo too bloated. One inside pocket took the driver’s license and very slim healthcare card, the other fitted a credit card and a folded paper record, and the outside pocket held folded cash and a debit card.
Along with the iPhone, that’s more than enough to carry most days. And it’s not hard to imagine people getting by with less if they truly rely on their iPhone, Apple Pay and the Wallet app.
Adds a bit of bulk
Photo: David Snow/Cult of Mac
So, if you don’t insist on carrying too much in it, the Ezmo is a fairly slick and sleek everyday-carry item.
You could carry it separately in another pocket, but assuming you take advantage of it as a magnetic wallet that sticks to iPhone, you should know it’s going to add a bit of bulk and make your handset feel different in your pocket.
That’s just something to get used to if you decide the benefits of the handsome wallet outweigh that sort of factor. For some people, it may be perfect. For me, the jury is still out.
Other functions: RFID protection and iPhone stand
Photo: David Snow/Cult of Mac
Like my carbon-fiber wallet, the Ezmo shields your credit cards and other RFID-based cards from “skimming,” or reading the information on them. That’s a reassuring feature.
And of course, the wallet is designed to function as a stand, as well. You can stick it to your phone and open up the rigid halves to form a stand that can sit on any flat surface.
And just as you can stick your iPhone on other MagSafe-compatible stands or chargers in portrait (vertical) or landscape (horizontal) mode, you can do that with Ezmo. So you can prop up your iPhone for any use, like reading email, taking a FaceTime call or watching a movie.
Journey Ezmo Magnetic Wallet and Phone Stand comes in black or brown leather. Note that you can find similar products for lower prices on Amazon and elsewhere, but your mileage may vary as to whether other choices offer the premium feel of Journey’s product.
Price: $64.99
Where to buy: Journey
Journey provided Cult of Mac with a review unit for this article. See our reviews policy, and check out other in-depth reviews of Apple-related items.
★★★★☆
